Tablet, Chromebook, or cheap 13" Laptop for photo stuff?

This year, I plan on taking a lot of pictures at various events all over the place, and I want to pick up a small tablet, Chromebook, or 13" Laptop to take with me. I'm also trying to do this on a budget, so cheaper is better. I have a 1TB external drive I can bring with me, so onboard memory is not a big deal, but I do need a card reader on the device. I'm leaning toward a decent Chromebook or a cheap (even used) laptop running Windows 10. I'll also use it for writing while on the road instead of taking my 10 year old, Civil War Era 15.6" Toshiba with a dead battery with me.

Requirements:

-Affordable (Under $300 if possible)

-Around 12-13" so it can fit easily in a DSLR backpack

-USB port and SD card reader

-Decent screen

-Doesn't completely suck

Is there anything out there I should be looking at? Thanks!

Are you wanting to edit photos with it, or just store them? If all you want is a place to hold them, a Chromebook is absolutely the cheap and easy way to do it. Editing, well, that's another story. When Android apps become available for Chrome (something in the works, apparently - I've haven't kept up to speed on developments, though) you'll have access to things like Lightroom, which should make real editing possible. Until then, it's either Linux via Crouton or something other than a Chromebook.

In reply to 02Pilot:

I would probably do some light editing, but nothing too processor intensive. I'd be storing things on a portable HDD.

Two examples I'm looking at:

HP 14" Win10 Laptop, AMD E2-7110 APU, 4GB RAM, 32GB SSD

Let me get this out of the way: I don't like HP. I hate all the bloatware their PC's come with and I've never been a fan of their architecture. That said, this one looks like a decent deal. It's a real Win10 PC with a 4-core processor. It also has a good IPS LED backlit screen. But... it's a 14" and won't fit in most DSLR bags. Refurbished ones come in at under $200. That's cheap.

Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebook, 4gb RAM, 16GB onboard memory, Celeron 3855U

This one looks interesting. It's a Lenovo ThinkPad, which means it's a rugged little machine. It is 13" which is the right size for portability, and it has USB-C ports on it. Processor and RAM should be enough to get the job done on ChromeOS. But... it's more expensive than the "real" Windows PC above.

So why not get an SD Card with wifi built in and back them up to a tablet or phone automatically?

Or carry multiple cards and change them out as they get full?

You'll want to back them and the external drive up online somehow as they are all single points of failure just waiting to happen.

It just sounds like you're wanting to carry stuff for the sake of carrying stuff.

Stefan wrote: So why not get an SD Card with wifi built in and back them up to a tablet or phone automatically? Or carry multiple cards and change them out as they get full? You'll want to back them and the external drive up online somehow as they are all single points of failure just waiting to happen. It just sounds like you're wanting to carry stuff for the sake of carrying stuff.

My camera does have a wi-fi adapter that allows for sending the pictures off of the card to an Android device, but it is very clunky and sucks to use on my phone. In fact, last time I tried it, it ended up corrupting my Micro SD card in my phone.

Also, backing up stuff online when you have no WiFi access means you are using the network (on a phone or tablet), and that costs money. I'd rather keep it on an external drive and back it up later when I'm on WiFi to the cloud.

Plan was to carry the following:

-DSLR with lenses

-Small laptop

-Small 1TB external drive

As long as it all fits in a backpack, that's cool with me. That doesn't seem like a lot of stuff to carry.

No reason to pay more than $200 for a Chromebook. I'd grab something highly rated from Amazon (mine is an Asus C201, currently $179; note that the Rockchip processor on this one makes it less than ideal for use with Crouton. Choosing something with an Intel processor makes your life easier in that regard.) and call it done. Grab a few 64GB micro-SD cards and call it a day - you shouldn't even need the HD.

In reply to Tony Sestito:

Tried an EyeFi yet?

I wrote this posting in the past about my Lenovo Yoga 11e Touchscreen laptop running full Win10pro for $269.

The are regularly sold on the website Woot.com The 11e stands for 11" screen and the e stands for "built for the educational market." As such, they are small but beefy and I think mil-spec for drops and abuse.
Basically a ruggedized Chromebook case but inside is a 128gb, solid state hard drive and real computer capability running Win10.
As an added bonus (and a feature that I did not intend to use and do not use) the Yoga hinge allows for the unit to be folded open, flat and touchscreen like a tablet (but a big tablet.)

I use this as my main machine to run a small business on. You can really type on it with the genuine Thinkpad keyboard.

These come up on Woot.com all the time for $269. Woot most recently offered it on April 11th.
I then added $30 to upgrade from 4gb to 8gb so it is right at $300 but to me it is an awesome little machine for the price.

Here is some Woot Chatter/comments from a recent time they were offered.

I have had this unit a year now. If it was lost or stolen tomorrow, I would buy the exact same thing!

In reply to John Welsh :

Wow, I like this one. I see that Adorama has it for $219, but they are out of stock as well. This one might be the answer if I can find it.

Caution: This $219 version on Adorama is the same case but ChromeOS meaning Chromebook meaning much weaker.

Read what CNet had to say

Win10 Pro version on Amazon for $298.
That is $30 more than Woot but woot would also charge you $5 in shipping so that is $25 more if you need it now. With Prime it is telling me I could have it tomorrow if I order in the next 4 hours!

Dude, why are you setting yourself up for failure? Go to E-Bay or CL and find the best used MacBook you can for your budget. A 2012 MacBook is going to serve you so much better than some cheapo Google product.

Used Mac

Upload the latest OS (for free btw) and buy Adobe Lightroom and your done.

In reply to pinchvalve:

I know Macs are great for this kind of thing, but I'm not a Mac guy. Never have been, and probably never will be.

When I needed my last purchase of computer equipment I started checking my local bestbuy open box items. I got a great deal on my laptop for about 1/2 normal price it is good enough for me but maybe not some "power user" which I am not.

I wish I knew. I just threw out half a dozen laptops that would have done what you wanted. It's kind of amazing how Win10 adapts itself to older/slower hardware.

Find the absolute cheapest thing you can running win10 and having an SD slot. Download GIMP, and you're set.

I don't use it often, but I have transferred wirelessly from my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (built in wi-fi) to my Samsung Galaxy TAB S2 tablet. Quick way to browse and view the SD card and to download high quality camera images onto the tablet....if doing a few select ones. Image quality doesn't seem 100 percent though...lower resolution than what the actual image is. For any decent ammount of editing or backing up would keep to a laptop setup.

Like mentioned by others, any cheap laptop will do if photo is more hobby than an actual career. I picked up a cheap 1TB Lenovo ideapad (because I wanted HDMI for monitor out and optical drive for directly ripping my music collection off CD's) recently for use as both photo work and for my desktop music player/audio source (running FLAC rips with external DAC and headphone amp...so low end machine is absolutely perfect!). Has been working fine for me and I love how thin the new laptops are (0.8")...

Since I posted this thread, I've been waffling back and forth on a bunch of different machines, like Chrome OS stuff, Windows 10 machines, used Thinkpads from a few years ago, and even looked for cheap MacBooks.

So, I ended up with this thing:

It's a HP Pavilion X360. They come in a few different configurations, and this one has a 128gb SSD and a 7th Gen Intel i5-7200U processor. Man, it is FAST. Everything is instant! It's also a 13" model and super thin so it will fit in a photo backpack, which is a huge plus.

The one I got (which I'm typing on right now) has a gold and black aluminum finish. For obvious reasons, I named it C-3PO.d up scoring it a few hundred cheaper than Best Buy sells them for at a Micro Center as a refurbished unit. Still has a warranty and all that.

It also does this:

It doubles as a tablet, and while kinda gimmicky, it works better than I thought it would.

I've been unloading all the HP bloatware all afternoon.

Slightly bigger yet thinner than my Lenovo and a couple steps better on processor.
Looks really nice!

IIRC Chromebooks are websurfing machines with minimal local storage. I don't think they'll do what you want them to do if I understand your requirements.

I've bought a used Lenovo T240 on eBay a couple of months back that I would think fit all criteria for around $300 (although I threw an SSD in, so that was another $100). If you don't want a Mac I'd get a used Lenovo T240 or older Carbon X1. The reason I chose the T240 over an X1 is because it's smaller - I carry it as my personal laptop when I travel for work, so size and weight were important. Although I believe the X1 is lighter, but it's a little bigger as it's got a bigger screen.

A Chromebook would be a good choice for your needs

Do you like these http://cvc2.org/best-cheap-laptop-under-300-dollars/